A price-tag has been hooked onto Adama Traore, allegedly, and it reads that he will be costing £70m.
According to reports in the Sun, Barcelona, Liverpool and Manchester City are all fighting it out to try and sign the explosive winger.
While this might be Traore’s breakthrough season at the very top of English football, if the reports are true, then Wanderers should be setting their bar higher than £70m.
Firstly, it’s important to remember that Traore is just 23 and is improving all of the time. When he was initially brought to the Black County by Nuno Espirito Santo, he only started eight games in the whole of the Premier League last year. This season, he has featured in 20 games already, starting 17 of them, and arguably being the club’s best player.
Some of his statistics are pretty frightening. According to WhoScored’s algorithm, he averages 7.74/10 from those 20 games, and he has only scored four goals and has four assists. While that is a decent return, that average rating is the second-highest in the entire division, so that shows there is a lot more to his game than goals and assists.
Apart from his obvious pace and dribbling ability, he has shown good stats all across the board. He averages 1.3 key passes per game and even gets off 1.3 shots per match.
His dribbling ability at this level in the Premier League is only mirrored by very few; Wilfried Zaha, Nicolas Pepe and Allan Saint-Maximin all average fewer dribbles per game than him, and he is the highest by some way with 5.6.
All of this sets him apart from the rest of the league, and therefore anyone who purchases him will be able to purchase a player with unique dribbling ability, remarkable strength and speed. Unsurprisingly, this will make him extraordinarily hard to replace, thus very valuable.
How much is Adama Traore worth to Wolves?
Less than £70m
£70m sounds about right
More than £70m
Unsure - it's too hard to tell in the transfer market these days
Next to consider is the fact he is contracted until 2023 and Wolves are under no pressure to be selling off their top assets – especially in January.
Clubs in the Premier League earn so much due to television rights that Wolves – who already have extremely rich owners, anyway – have no need to sell financially.
Therefore, any fee they do sell for should be astronomical, or they should just allow Traore to keep playing his football at Molineux.
Look at Zaha, for example. Palace are still demanding £80m for him, and he hasn’t had as good of a season as Traore and is four years older.
For me, Traore’s value to Wolverhampton outweighs £70m, therefore, that fee should be bumped up – or they could face losing him.
